Persian MS 854 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Summary of Contents: This complete manuscript of the Khamsah (Quintet) by Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī (ca. 1253–1325) widely regarded as India's most famous medieval poet. Originally from Patiyali in the Delhi Sultanate (today in Uttar Pradesh), he attracted the support of several rulers during his lifetime, most significantly Sulṭān ‘Alā' al-Dīn Khaljī (r. 1296–1316). He composed many witty puns and wordplays that tremendously impacted subsequent Persianate poets. Many sources refer to him as the Ṭūṭī-yi Hind (Parrot of India) on account of his intimate knowledge of not only Persian, but also Arabic, Turkish, and Hindustani languages. His lyrics nurtured the development of the Qawwali music tradition in South Asia. A disciple of Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyā (1238–1325), a leader of the Chishti Sufi order, near whom he lies interred in the Niẓām al-Dīn Dargāh shrine complex in Delhi. This manuscript features comprises five works by the author: Maṭla‘ al-Anvār (Ladder of Lights), the Ā'īnah-'i Iskandarī (Mirror of Alexander), the Hasht Bihisht (Eight Heavens), and the romances of Khusraw and Shīrīn then Laylī and Majnūn. Each work opens with a lavishly illuminated headpiece. An unidentified scribe probably completed the manuscript in the Safavid Empire in 1007 AH (1598 CE), making it the earliest dated version of this work held in the Rylands.
Author: Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī, ca. 1253–1325;
امير حسرو دهلوى
Title: Khamsah
Title: خمسه
Incipit: (basmalla) صفحه‌ی ۱ (page 1): خطبه قدس است بملک قديم * بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم قطرهٔ | آبی صد هزاران نقش چین ...
Explicit: صفحه‌ی ۵۵۶ (page 556): میسمنا ملکااگر درین دیوان همه * خلاف دین سخن گرفت خسرو مسکین | بحق اشهد أن لا إله إلا الله* بدین احمد مرسل رسول بارسین
Colophon: صفحه‌ی ۲۰۲ (page 202): تمت الکتاب آیینه اسکندری امیر خسرو دهلوی بعون الله تعالی و حسن توفیقه و الحمد لله رب العالمین تحریر فی منتصف شهر رجب سنه سبع و الف.
Colophon: Completed the second work, the Āyīnah-'i Iskandarī , 202, in the middle of Rajab 1007 (mid-Feb. 1598 CE).
Language(s): Persian

For other copies of the Khamsah of Amīr Khusraw held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 198, 214, and 228

1. Page 1
Title: Maṭla‘ al-Anvār
Title: مطلع الانوار
2. Page 91
Title: Ā'īnah-'i Iskandarī
Title: آئينه اسکندرى
3. Page 205
Title: Hasht Bihist
Title: هشت بهشت
4. Page 293
Title: Shīrīn va Khusraw
Title: شیرین و خسرو
5. Page 379
Title: Laylī va Majnūn
Title: لیلی و مجنون

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock comprised of a combination of straight and cross-grained, medium-weight externally sized and polished, ivory-coloured paper, probably handmade in the Safavid Empire, with ~18 laid lines per 20 mm and no discernible chain lines.
Extent: 440 pages, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 220 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 340 × 203 mm.
Dimensions (written): 220 × 123 mm.
Foliation: Pencilled Arabic page numbers added to the upper-left corners of the a sides by former owner Duncan Forbes.

Collation

Undetermined due to tight sewing. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In fair condition, with insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 to 4 columns with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Decoration

Five variant richly illuminated scalloped domed headpieces commence each work, with lines outlined in cloud bands and interstices infilled with gold wash and embellished with floral scrollwork on each double-page opening.

Illumination:

  • Page 1:
    130 × 128 mm.
  • Page 91:
    140 × 125 mm.
  • Page 205:
    130 × 125 mm.
  • Page 293:
    142 × 125 mm.
  • Page 379:
    140 × 125 mm.

Ruling: Margins ruled in gold outlined with thin single interior and double exterior black lines, and surrounded by another interior single green, outlined with thin double black interior lines, all surrounded by single red and blue exterior lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
  • The first right flylead a side (ia) numbered ‘D. F. 12’ and a price of ‘£8/18/6’ at bottom both pertain to former owner Duncan Forbes' catalogue. A pencilled list of the contents appears twice, also in Forbes' hand.
  • Page 0, top, signed by former owner Edward Galley adjacent to his seal impression.
  • Page 0 also bears a lengthy description of the author adjacent to a seal impression with the name of Muḥammad ‘Alī.
  • The fore-edge and tail edge bear the title Maṭla‘ al-Anwār written in nasta‘līq script.
  • The final right flyleaf b side (f. ivb) bears the numbers ‘Nº 17’, ‘441’, and ‘12’.
Bookplates: The left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/3’, and an earlier Lindesiana label‘Persian MSS No. 60’, with the number crossed out and ‘854’ written aside.

Binding

Possibly rebound in Qajar-era Bushire (Bushehr) for former owner Edward Galley, given both the style of binding and his signature and seal impression over repairs on page 0.

Resewn, unsupported, with edges trimmed and endbands likely twined at head and tail, now lost. Covered in full maroon goatskin leather over pasteboards, flush-cut, with a flap, and defined joints (Type II binding per Déroche).

Boards decorated with recessed central scalloped mandorlas with detached pendants fully blocked in silver leather, now tarnished, and cornerpieces of tinted black. All bear brightly hand-painted flowers and foliage, known as mīnāyī (enamelled) due to the shiny appearance of the paint. For another example of this style held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 37, also Mihan, as well as Bayānī and Ardakānī. The fore-edge flap exterior bears three impressions of the same cartouche bearing a hemistich that probably reads:
‘ روان و دوات و زبان و قلم ’. Board margins and interior doublures ruled in yellow, as well as yellow vegetal scrollwork on the fore-edge flap interior.

341 × 219 × 54 mm.

Handle binding with caution. Exterior wear to the decoration, and scuffing on the board edges. Tight sewing restricts opening to the gutter margins. Endbands missing.

Seal(s):
Four black seal impressions, intaglio-carved in nasta‘līq script. Two on folio 1a, along with one obliterated, and two on 202a:

Folio 1a, top bears a single impression of Edward Galley's smaller seal in one line, double ruled:
11 × 13 mm.

1: Folio 1a, bottom, bears a small circular impression bearing the name of Muḥammad ‘Alī in two stacked lines, double ruled:
~14

2: Folio 1a, middle, bears an obliterated rectangular impression, single-ruled:
19 × 23 mm.

3: Folio 202a, right of the colophon, bears a partially legible single oval impression in two lines, double-ruled, which references the Safavid ruler Sulaymān I, Shah of Iran (b. ca. 1658, r. 1666–1694):
‘باشد(؟) سر فخر بر مهر ماه * (؟) را از لطف سلیمان شاه ۱۰۷’ 12 × 18 mm.

4: Folio 202a, right of the colophon, bears a single oval impression in two lines, double ruled, which references the Qajar ruler Fatḥ ‘Alī Shāh Qājār (b. 1772, r. 1797–1834):
‘علی فاتح مهرانی علم(؟) مهر شد(؟)’ 12 × 18 mm.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Safavid Empire; 1007 AH (1598 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently owned or inspected by at least four individuals: one whose immolated seal impression appears on page 1, another who wrote a biographical account of the author adjacent to a seal impression bearing the name of Muḥammad ‘Alī, as well as two other seal impressions on page 202a, including one dated 1107 AH (1695–96 CE) that mentions Safavid ruler Sulaymān I (b. 1648, r. 1666–1694), and another referencing Fatḥ ‘Alī Shāh Qājār (b. 1772, r. 1797–1834).

Later acquired by Edward Galley (ca. 1750–1804), East India Company Resident at Bushire (Bushehr) between 1780 to 1787, where he probably obtained this volume. Ultimately Lieutentant-Governor of Surat where he passed away, after his death, Galley's family sold a portion of his library in Surat including volumes obtained by David Price (see Robinson, p. 209). However, they evidently returned to Britain and subsequently sold the remainder through the London firm of Samuel Leigh Sotheby on 30 June 1837, lot 209.

Probably acquired at Galley's sale by London bookseller Henry George Bohn (1796–1884), who then offered it for sale in his 1841 catalogue, no. 13618, for 3£ 3s, and described as ...poems on the Soofy, or mystical doctrines of the Persians" which comports with an unsigned note in Galley's hand adhered to the left doublure.

Probably purchased from Bohn by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £8 8s (also inscribed on the right pastedown), before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity.

Subsequently sold by W. H. Allen & Co. to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866 for his Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2024 with reference to the manuscript in hand.

Availability

To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.

Bibliography

    M. Bayānī, and Ḥ. M. Ardakānī, Kitābshināsī-yi Kitāb'hā-yi Khaṭṭī. ([Tehran]: [Dānishgāh-i Tihrān], 1353 SH [1974 CE]), p. 39.
    Henry G. Bohn, A Catalogue of Books (London, Bohn, 1841), p. 1151, no. 13618.
    H. M. Elliot 'Poems of Amir Khusrú' in The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. III, Appendix A (London: Trübner & Co., 1875), pp. 523–567.
    H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. cols. 701–702, nos. 1196–1200 [British Library IO Islamic 345, &c.].
    D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 4, no. 12.
    P. Hardy, 'Amīr Ḵẖusraw' Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol I (), pp.pp.
    S. Mihan 'The Journey of The Gift of the Noble' Voyages and Travel Accounts in Historiography and Literature, Vol. 1. Edited by Boris Stojkovski (Novisad: Trivent, 2020), pp. 245-263.
    C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 616–617 [British Library Add. 24983, &c.].
    B. W. Robinson, 'R.A.S. MS 178: An Unrecorded Persian Painter', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1970): p. 209.
    E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 560–562, nos. 756–771 [Bodleian MS. Elliot 191].
    A. Schimmel, 'Amīr Ḵosrow Dehlavī' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 9 (1985), pp. 963-965.
    S. Sharma, Amir Khusraw: the Poet of Sultans and Sufis. Oxford: One World, 2006.
    S. Sharma 'Ḵamsa of Amīr Ḵosrow' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 4 (2011), pp. 445–448.
    S. Leigh Sotheby., Catalogue of a portion of the library of a prominent orientalist, deceased : also, a collection of oriental manuscripts, from the library of a late governor of Surat: to which is added, the miscellaneous and philological library of John Belfour, Esq. ... which will be sold by auction by Mr. Leigh Sotheby, at his house, 3, Wellington Street, Strand, on Friday, June 30th, and following day, at one o'clock, precisely (London: S. Leigh Sotheby, (2013), p. 11, no. 209.
    C. A. Storey Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Sect II, Fasc. 3 (London: Luzac & Co.1939), pp. 495–499 (no. 665 (3).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

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